Going Dutch
by mirdaishan
Summary: While working on a case, Morgan and Greg discover that their unknown suspect has gone from killing in Vegas to killing in the Netherlands. After being requested to do so, they fly over to the Netherlands to help out the Dutch CSI team, but being away from the rest of their own team of course means it's not all about work...
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, time for another story! :D  
****As most of you know by now, I'm from the Netherlands. For a while I've been thinking about bringing Greg and Morgan / CSI over to my country in a fanfic. And I finally did! I hope you enjoy what I came up with - it will be a crime story with some Morganders romance of course as I just love them together! :)  
Enjoy and please leave me a review letting me know what you think!**

_**Chapter 1**_

"Russell… Russell!" Morgan ran through the hallways of CSI to reach her supervisor before he'd take off – again. She had been trying to get a hold of him for over twenty minutes, but every time he seemed to disappear. This time he stood still, however, and turned around to look at her.

"There's something you should know," she said, trying to catch her breath. "Remember the case Greg and I have been working on? The tattoo killer?"

"Yeah, I remember," Russell slowly nodded. "What about it?"

"Someone else ran our prints and DNA sample through the system," Morgan told him. Russell frowned. "Someone else found the same prints and DNA at their crime scene as you two did? Who did then? Someone from swing shift? Or dayshift?"

Morgan nodded a little. "Dayshift, yes, in some way…"

Russell looked even more confused. "Dayshift in some way?"

"Someone working for CSI in the Netherlands found the same prints and DNA as we did," Morgan finally told him, a triumphant look in her eyes. "Come over to layout, Greg and I will explain everything!"

"Alright…" Russell, trying to hide his surprise after Morgan's revelation, followed her back to the layout room, where Greg was standing at the table. The table itself was covered with crime scene photos.

"Okay, take me back!" Russell said, looking at the photos and then at Greg.

"Two weeks ago you sent me and Morgan to a crime scene just off the Strip," Greg started the story. "We found a dead male victim, later identified as Jim Van Dyk, who had been strangled by a rope, which we knew thanks to the marks on his neck. On his right upper arm he had a tattoo of the letter X, which was set after he died. Next to the body we found a plastic bag, probably the one to hold the tattoo tools. On it, we found some fingerprints. We also found a dark hair in it, which didn't belong to the victim. We of course ran the fingerprints and DNA from the hair through the system, but no match. We only know the DNA is male. There was no other evidence – no witnesses or surveillance videos, so Morgan and I were unable to find Jim Van Dyk's killer."

"Two days after that you sent us to another crime scene," Morgan continued the story. "This time the victim's name was Mark Jansen. He had also been strangled by a rope and he had a tattoo of the letter X on his upper right arm, set after he had died. We again found a plastic bag on the scene, the fingerprints were a match to the prints we had found at the first scene. We didn't find any hairs, though, but we did find a piece of the rope with saliva on it. The DNA from the saliva matched the DNA from the hair at scene one."

"Three days later Sara investigated the death of Mandy Smit," Greg took over. "When she saw the rope marks on Mandy's neck and the tattoo of the letter X on the right upper arm, she called us. We checked the scene – same plastic bag, same piece of a rope. The fingerprints from the plastic bag and the DNA from the saliva on the rope were again a match to scene one and two."

"We think there might have been a piece of rope at the first scene as well, but that the killer threw it away further from the body, which is why we didn't find it," Morgan said to Russell.

"Alright, so you have three victims killed by the same person," Russell understood. "How does this killer end up in the Netherlands?"

"We think he may have a connection to it," Greg explained. "All three victims do: Jim Van Dyk, our first victim, had a Dutch father, both Mark Jansen's parents were Dutch and Mandy Smit was married to a man with a Dutch father. In fact, she was married to Jim Van Dyk's cousin, Ronald Van Dyk. She never took his name, though, which might be because they were only married for a few months. Ronald Van Dyk died in a car accident only two months after their wedding."

"Okay, so you have two victims who have a connection, but how does your third victim fit in?" Russell said.

"And victim number four," Morgan reminded him. "A woman was found dead in a small town in the southwest of the Netherlands. She had been strangled, the forensic team found a piece of rope at the scene and a plastic bag. On her upper right arm, she had a tattoo of the letter X…"

"They ran the prints and DNA sample through the system and discovered we had put it in," Greg told their supervisor. "When they did, they called us and asked us to come over to them and help them find the killer…"

Russell was quiet for a moment before he said: "Okay, let me see if I get this straight: someone from the Dutch police has asked you two to fly to the Netherlands to help them catch a killer who has also killed three people here in Vegas. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to fly out here? He has killed more people here than in the Netherlands!"

"True, but his last victim was found in the Netherlands," Morgan reminded him. "Ever since he killed Mandy Smit we haven't found anyone else here in Vegas that connects to this case. Probably because he flew back to the Netherlands and is now killing there."

Russell nodded, he understood why the Dutch police had asked Greg and Morgan to fly to the Netherlands.

"I'll have to discuss this with the sheriff," he told them.

"Not necessary."

All three of them turned around and saw Ecklie standing in the doorway.

"I just got a call from the assistant dayshift supervisor in the Netherlands," he said. "She told me the whole story and asked me if I was willing to send you two over to her country to help her team out."

"Are you?" Morgan asked her father. He looked at her. When he didn't say anything, she made a begging face. "Dad, please! Greg and I have been working on this case for two weeks without catching any breaks, this is what we've been waiting for! Maybe if we fly to the Netherlands we can finally catch this guy. If we don't, you'll keep three unsolved murders in your city…"

Ecklie started laughing. Greg and Russell smiled as well. Morgan was definitely good at giving him a guilty conscience! She smiled now too, but kept a questioning look in her eyes.

"Just… give me a minute to talk to Russell, okay?" he finally said.

"Shall we go to my office?" Russell suggested.

"That seems like a good idea!"

The two men left the room, while Greg and Morgan stayed behind. Morgan looked at Greg. "I really wanna go! I hate unsolved cases…"

"If we go, there's no guarantee we'll catch this guy," Greg reminded her. Morgan rolled her eyes. "Nice positive thinking, Sanders! Of course we'll catch the guy! Two Las Vegas graveyard shift members joining the Dutch forensic team… This guy doesn't stand a chance!"

"Well, at least you have enough positive thinking for the both of us!" Greg said. Grinning, Morgan playfully nudged him, to which he responded with an almost cheeky smile. She smiled back at him, suddenly feeling her stomach fill up with butterflies and a warm glow spreading through her body. The almost invisible blush he suddenly had on his cheeks told her he was definitely feeling something as well.

Their moment was interrupted by Russell walking back into the layout room.

"And?" Morgan asked him, quickly turning away from Greg before she'd start blushing as well.

"Go home," Russell told them.

"But…"

"Go home!" he repeated. "Go pack your bags, you're flying to Amsterdam tonight! Your Dad is arranging all the necessary papers, flight tickets and hotel arrangements."

"I'll need a copy of your passports," Ecklie said, appearing behind Russell. Morgan walked up to him and spontaneously gave him a hug. "Thanks, Dad, you're the best!"

"Just make sure you catch this guy, so I don't waste a lot of LVPD money!" he warned them.

"Don't worry, we'll catch him, Sir," Greg promised him. Morgan looked back at him, a smile around her lips because he had obviously changed his mind. He gave her a guilty smile in return.

"Now go home and get some sleep!" Ecklie said to them. "I'll bring you to the airport myself tonight, make sure you're up and ready – your flight leaves at nine twenty tonight, but you have to be there at six twenty at the latest to check in. Don't be late, you hear me?"

"We hear you, Dad," Morgan smiled. "Don't worry, we'll be up and ready!"

She and Greg left the layout room and walked over to the locker room. Both of them started gathering their things from their locker.

"Have you ever been to Europe before?" Greg suddenly asked Morgan. She looked up and nodded. "Yeah, I've been to Paris. What about you?"

Greg shook his head.

"Well, don't worry, just remember this: it's going to be a long flight!" Morgan told him. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, okay?"

"Okay. Sleep tight," he simply said.

"You too." She smiled at him before she left the locker room. Twelve hours on a plane with a guy she had been falling in love with deeper and deeper every day, going after a killer in another country, working together with her favorite co-worker (who happened to be the same guy she had been falling in love with deeper and deeper every day) away from the rest of their team… She just couldn't help but smile as she drove home. This was going to be great!


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, so many amazing responses after that first chapter - I definitely didn't expect that! Thank you so much, I really love knowing you enjoyed that first chapter!  
****Here we go with chapter 2, hope you guys enjoy this as much as the first one - just let me know in a review! :)**

_**Chapter 2**_

Like he had promised, Ecklie brought Morgan and Greg to the airport himself. He first picked up his daughter at her place and then used her directions to get to Greg's house. He found it a little strange she knew the shortcuts to his house so well considering the fact she had been living in Las Vegas shorter than he had, but he didn't say anything about it.

After picking up Greg, he continued to the airport – parking his car and bringing them to the check in desk. He watched them check in (of course he had arranged seats next to each other for them) and then smiled when they came over to thank him one last time.

"This is really great, Dad, I mean it!" Morgan said. Smiling, Ecklie hugged his daughter. "No problem, M. Just remember what I said, okay: catch the guy!"

"We will," Morgan promised him.

"Good. Eh, Greg, can I talk to you for a second?" he then asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Greg nodded, a little surprised. He followed the sheriff away from Morgan, curious about what he wanted to talk about.

"Look, I know she's a grown woman, but she's still my daughter," Ecklie started. "I would love to say 'Be careful' and 'Look out' to her, but I know she'll just start laughing at me and say she can take care of herself. I know she can, of course, but… do you think you can keep an eye on her for me? Make sure you bring her back safely?"

Greg nodded again. "Of course, Sir, I won't let anything happen to her. Although she'll probably end up making sure I don't get hurt… She's really good at protecting other people… and herself!"

Ecklie smiled at him. "I know. It's just that… Well, you'll understand when you have kids yourself one day. No matter how old they are, they'll always be your little boy or girl! And having your little girl fly all the way across the ocean, even if she's all grown up, can be a little scary for a Dad…"

"I promise: I won't let anything happen to her," Greg repeated sincerely.

"Alright. Well, off you go then, then you have time for some coffee before your flight leaves. Here's twenty dollars, my treat," Ecklie said, handing him a twenty dollar bill.

"Oh, thank you, Sir, but that's really not neces…" Greg started, but Ecklie cut him off: "I just gave you twenty dollars to take my daughter out for coffee. If you don't wanna use it, then change it to euros in Amsterdam and take her out for dinner there, okay?"

Greg had never felt so uncomfortable in his entire life. Was Morgan's father, the sheriff of Las Vegas nonetheless, really pushing him to make a move on his daughter?

"Figure out on the plane what I'm trying to tell you now," Ecklie said. He gave his daughter a final wave. "Have a good flight!"

Without saying another word at Greg he left. Greg just watched him walked away. Had Ecklie really just said, in a very mysterious way that was of course, that he would be okay with it if the two of them started dating?

"What did my Dad say?"

Greg woke up from his thoughts with a shock. Morgan smiled at him. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you! What did my Dad want from you?"

"Oh, eh… He gave me twenty bucks so we can have some coffee before our flight leaves," Greg quickly said.

"Twenty bucks? I'd say we can have more than just coffee!" Morgan grinned. "Come on, let's go!"

After passing the passport check point, they had some coffee with a piece of apple pie in the departure lounge. Since they had been at the airport early, they had to wait a few hours before they could finally board the plane. They weren't bored, though: they talked about their case, the plane, the weather and their earlier vacation trips and walked around the departure lounge for a while. They then waited near the gate until they could board.

Their seats were in the middle of the plane, 23C and D. One of the seats was next to the aisle, the other one in the middle of three seats next to other.

"You take the aisle seat, I'll be fine in the middle," Morgan said to Greg.

"Okay!" he nodded. He soon discovered why Morgan had wanted the middle seat: with all the other passengers and crew members walking up and down the aisle, he constantly had to move to avoid being hit.

"If this is gonna continue the entire flight, it's indeed going to be a long flight!" he commented.

"Don't worry, they'll all sit down in a minute," Morgan reassured him. "Or do you wanna switch seats?"

"No, I'll be fine," Greg responded with a sigh. Grinning, she pushed him against his shoulder. He looked at her with a happy smile on his face, which made her feel all warm inside again. She quickly changed the subject to avoid blushing: "So we're flying to London Heathrow now and from there, we're flying to Amsterdam."

Greg nodded. "Yep, arriving at six twenty in the evening local time. Your Dad said someone from the Dutch police department would pick us up and take us to our hotel. Apparently we'll have to spend some time in the car as the police station is somewhere in the southwest of the country. Do you remember the name of the town?"

"I put it in my phone, I'll look it up," Morgan said just as a flight attendant asked everyone to take their seats and put their cellphones away. Morgan shrugged her shoulders with an apologetic look on her face. Greg gave her a reassuring look in return. He really didn't care that much about the name of the city, he had just tried to keep the conversation going.

About thirty minutes later the plane left the Las Vegas airport and started for London Heathrow airport. At first, Greg and Morgan talked a bit and looked around the plane, but after a few hours, they got bored. While Morgan flipped through the onboard magazine, Greg tried to get some sleep, even though he was convinced he wouldn't be able to sleep on a plane. When Morgan looked up from her magazine, however, she found he was fast asleep. Smiling, she watched him for a few moments. He just looked so sweet! Suddenly she decided to take advantage of the moment. She unbuckled her seat belt, pushed the arm rest up and moved closer to him. He didn't notice that she wrapped an arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder. With a smile on her face she closed her eyes.

It wasn't until one of the flight attendants passed by with their meal that Greg noticed what Morgan had done. He woke up, finding her snuggled up against him. That she was so close to him, made his cheeks turn bright red and his heart started racing. Was he still dreaming? The flight attendant asking him what he wanted to eat made him realize he was definitely awake. Airplane meals would never be a part of his dreams!

"Would you like me to come back later for your neighbor?" the flight attendant asked him.

"No, I'll wake her up," he decided, even though he hated having to do it. He gently shook Morgan's shoulder. "Morgan… Morgan, wake up! What do you wanna eat?"

"Hmm?" She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. When she saw the flight attendant, she quickly sat up and brushed her hair out of her face. "Oh, sorry, I fell asleep."

"That's okay, Miss. What would you like to eat: chicken or pasta?"

"Oh, I'll have the pasta, please," Morgan decided, still trying to wake up properly.

"Alright, Miss, what would you like to drink with that?"

After they had finished their meals and the flight attendant had collected their trash, they both decided to stay awake.

"It's only two more hours anyway," Greg said, pointing at the small screen in front of him. "Although it looks like the nose of our plane is touching Heathrow already!"

Morgan grinned at the huge plane on the small screen. "Actually it looks like our plane is big enough to cover all of Ireland!"

Grinning, they watched the screen for another few moments before they started talking again. Morgan was sure they would always have something to talk about, whether it was about a case or about their favorite brand of chocolate.

When the plane started the landing procedure, they had reached the subject of toothpaste commercials. With a blush on her cheeks Morgan had admitted that she had once auditioned for one of those commercials when she was just three years old. To her surprise Greg said he was glad she hadn't gotten the part.

"No, you would have become an actress instead of a CSI," he explained his words. "I would have had to share you with thousands of fans!"

"Well, don't worry, you don't have to share me with anyone during this trip!" she reassured him. Neither of them got to think about the double meaning of her words thanks to the plane starting the final descent into Heathrow Airport. Both felt the pressure on their ears, happy with it this time so there wouldn't be an awkward moment between them.

After the plane had landed and had taxied to the gate, they got off and went through all the necessary procedures. Their luggage would automatically be transferred to their next plane, so all they had to do, was walk to their gate. By the time they arrived there, boarding had already started. This time they had one seat next to the window, which Greg kindly offered to Morgan. He looked out the window over her shoulder the entire flight, though, even though most of what they saw were clouds and sea.

Finally, Morgan saw land.

"Doesn't look that different from our country," she said. "Water, fields, roads… All that's missing is the desert!"

She moved a little closer to the window. "Although… We don't have a wind mill park like that back in Vegas! Do you see it? Right over there!"

Greg leaned in a little further to try and see it. When Morgan turned her head around to ask him if he could see it, their faces were only inches apart. Without saying a word they just looked each other in the eye. Neither of them dared to move, they just looked at each other.

"Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. We'll be starting our final descent into Amsterdam Schiphol Airport."

Greg moved back into his seat, staring at something in the distance right in front of him. Morgan kept her eyes glued to the window, her heart beating wildly. She was happy that they were nearly allowed off the plane, but she hated that another moment between them had been ruined. She tried not to think about what could have happened if the captain hadn't said anything. Would they have kissed? Yeah, they definitely would have and she would have been the first to make the move. She knew Greg liked her, but he was too shy to admit his feelings for her. If she wanted something to happen between them, she would have to be the one to make the move.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, still so many reviews and responses after chapter two, thank you guys so much! I really love it! :D  
Here we go with chapter three now - I tried to describe a bit of my country, but I realized it's really hard to describe... Just keep in mind: we don't have mills every few yard, we don't walk around wearing wooden shoes and those fields full of tulips... Not everywhere and only in spring! ;)  
Enjoy this chapter, please let me know what you think in a review! :)**

_**Chapter 3**_

The plane landed smoothly at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and then taxied to the gate. Because their seats were quite far away from the door, Greg and Morgan had to wait a while before they could finally get off the plane. The advantage of that was that when they finally arrived at the luggage belt – after what felt like they had crossed the entire airport – their suitcases were already on it. Greg immediately picked up Morgan's suitcase, the gentleman he was of course.

"Thanks," she simply smiled at him. He nodded. "No problem."

They might have been able to avoid an awkward moment between them before landing at Heathrow Airport, but this time it was definitely there!

"I think the exit is over there," Morgan said, pointing to a sign that said 'Exit'.

"Okay, you go ahead, I'll take your suitcase," Greg said.

"Okay."

She followed the sign and ended up in the Arrivals lounge. A little lost, she looked around at the yellow signs with black letters on them until a woman came up to her.

"Morgan Brody?" she asked. Morgan nodded. The woman smiled at her. "Hi, my name is Pauline de Vries. I work for the Dutch Forensic Institute."

"Oh, right, nice to meet you!" Morgan said, shaking the woman's hand. "This here is my colleague Greg Sanders."

"Nice to meet you," Pauline nodded. "Well, welcome to Schiphol Airport!"

The way she pronounced Schiphol made Morgan think for a moment before realizing Pauline had only said the name of the airport. Pauline, who had seen Morgan's confusion, grinned. "You'll get used to it, I promise! I never understood why they gave this airport a name that's so difficult to say for non-Dutch speakers anyway. I mean, did you know that in the Second World War they used to expose German soldiers pretending to be Dutch by having them say 'Scheveningen'?"

"Eh… no…" Morgan had to admit. She had no idea what Pauline was talking about since she wasn't familiar with the Dutch city with the difficult name. Pauline grinned again. "I'm rambling, I'm sorry! You'll get used to that too, I do that a lot! So, how was your flight?"

"Well… eh…" They both looked at each other for a moment, remembering what had almost happened before they landed at Schiphol.

"We had a good flight, thanks for asking," Greg finally said. Pauline smiled happily. "Great! Okay, let's go then! My car is this way, I'll take you to the hotel you're staying at. Have either of you ever been to the Netherlands before?"

"I've been to Paris once," Morgan confessed.

"Good enough!" Pauline grinned. "Come on, let's go!"

She took them to her car and then started driving away from the airport. Even though it was dark already, traffic was still busy and Pauline had to concentrate on the road. It gave Greg and Morgan a chance to look around. First, they saw the planes from Schiphol Airport, but as they moved further away from the airport, they saw trees, open fields and a few farmhouses. Of course they couldn't see all the details as the street lights only gave them limited vision, but they still saw the differences between Las Vegas and the little country they were currently in. The Netherlands was definitely a green country with a lot of trees and the open fields and far less crowded than Vegas. Morgan knew there were plenty of houses in America as well that were miles away from the nearest supermarket, but yet it still seemed different here. She looked at the farmhouses located in between large open fields, surrounded by small streams of water. As it was nighttime she didn't see any cows or horses, but she could imagine them being there when it was light.

After about half an hour of driving, traffic became a little more relaxed and Pauline had time to talk to them.

"The town where I live is a little over an hour away from Schiphol," she told them. "It's called Zevenbergen, which would be Seven Mountains if you translate it in English. Don't be fooled, though, cause there's not a mountain anywhere in town! No idea why they ever gave it that name… It's not exactly the biggest city in the world, but it's good enough for me! We don't have an official police department there, though, there is a small department located in the city hall for people with an appointment, but that's all. When people need the police, they can either call us or contact us through the Internet."

Morgan frowned when she heard Pauline's words. How could a town not have a police department? Then again, her town probably wasn't anything like Las Vegas.

"Since the murder took place, there's police all over town, though!" Pauline continued. "When I heard this woman got murdered there, it scared me a little… I mean, something like this never happens in our town! We usually get cases like breaking and entering or damaged vehicles, but murder… no! I've worked murders before, of course, but never this close to home."

"What can you tell us about this murder?" Greg asked her. Pauline smiled at him through the rearview mirror. "Why don't I tell you that tomorrow? I'll pick you up at your hotel, I'll take you to work with me and we can start working on solving this case!"

"Sounds like a plan," Morgan smiled. "We brought all the files we could from Las Vegas, we can compare what we know and see if it helps us catch whoever is killing these people!"

The rest of the trip to the southwest of the country continued without any case related talking. Pauline told them a little more about her town, typical Dutch things and her co-workers. She mentioned a guy named Bram a lot, Morgan noticed.

"Seems you and… Bram get along quite well," she said, trying to pronounce the name right. Pauline blushed a little. "Yeah, we do. I've been thinking about asking him out for a while, but I'm afraid he'll say 'no' and it will ruin our friendship. I'm not really sure if he likes me too, you see…"

Morgan couldn't help but look at Greg for a moment. She was sure he liked her too – if she asked him out, he'd probably shout out a 'yes'!

"Can't you try to find out how he feels about you?" she suggested.

"I could… But I'd hate to be disappointed," Pauline confessed. "Right now, things are fine between us. Things may get all weird if he doesn't like me back!"

Morgan quickly looked at Greg again. He hadn't said anything, but she knew he was thinking about what Pauline had said. Did he know things were different between them? Or was he worrying things might get weird between them too if they ever took the next step?

"Well, here we are!" Pauline said, parking her car in front of a rather boring looking building. But then again any hotel would probably look boring compared to the ones on the Strip, Morgan thought. She got out of the car and looked around. Across the street were just houses, to the right she saw another big building.

"That's the city hall," Pauline told her. "The center of our town is just behind those houses across the street. Don't get too excited about it, though: it just some stores on both sides with an empty part in the middle – they call it the 'harbor' of our town and the streets on both sides of it are called 'North Harbor' and 'South Harbor', but I don't think we've had any water in it since… what, I don't know, 1900? I really don't know much about my own city's history!"

She rolled her eyes before she continued: "To the right, over there, you'll find senior citizens homes and our library, although I won't say too much about it as it's not really worth mentioning… Let's see, what else we got? Back there, if you cross that bridge, we have an outdoor swimming pool, only open in the summer of course. Behind the hotel is a clinic for sick animals and behind the city hall there we have our one and only high school. Or junior high, I'm never sure what to call it. Kids from twelve to eighteen go there, although some only spend four years there and others five or six. Depends on what kind of level you're studying. Anyway, I'm rambling again, let me take you inside!"

Smiling, Greg and Morgan followed her inside the hotel. It turned out to be a hotel that was combined with a sports hall.

"Interesting," Morgan whispered to Greg as Pauline did their check in. "I don't think we have one of those in Vegas!"

Greg smiled quickly at her before Pauline turned around.

"Okay, here are your room keys," she said. "I've arranged for breakfast to be brought up to your room tomorrow as they don't serve breakfast till seven. You'll have to be up and ready before that, because I'm picking you up at six thirty! I always start at seven, you see."

"Right… Then we'll… eh…" Morgan looked at Greg. He nodded. "We best get some sleep! We'll see you in the morning, Pauline!"

"Goodnight!" Pauline smiled before taking off. Morgan let out a sigh. Getting up that early after such a long flight wasn't the most ideal thing, but the time difference would probably make sure she'd be awake anyway.

"Let's check out our rooms," Greg suggested.

"Okay!"

They followed the signs and found their rooms were opposite of each other.

"Well, goodnight then," Greg said. Morgan smiled at him. "Goodnight. Sweet dreams!"

"You too!"

Morgan used her key card to enter her hotel room. It was a typical hotel room, nothing special. She put down her suitcase and got out her cellphone to let her Dad know they had arrived safely. Because her cellphone wasn't working in the Netherlands, she had to use the hotel phone instead. Her Dad was happy to hear they had arrived safely and wished them luck on their case.

"We'll be fine, Dad," she reassured him. "This guy doesn't stand a chance!"

She talked to her Dad for another few moments, but then decided to get some sleep. Of course that was easier said than done as she had been sleeping for a few hours on the plane and the time difference was bugging her. By the time her alarm clock went off, she felt like she had hardly slept at all.

Groaning, she got out of bed to take a shower. Because the hot water seemed to make her fall asleep again, she changed the temperature, nearly screaming out loud when she felt the cold water. Yep, she was definitely awake now!

Just after she had gotten dressed, there was a polite knock at the door. She expected it to be Greg, but it turned out to be room service delivering her breakfast. She quickly ate a slice of bread and had a cup of tea before she went across the hall and knocked on Greg's door. When he opened the door, she couldn't help but smile.

"Good morning!" she grinned.

"Yeah, something like that," he grumpily responded. Grinning, Morgan walked past him into the room, realizing he had slept just as well as she had.

"You know, I wonder what they'll say when you show up at the police department dressed like that," she said, pointing at his T-shirt and boxer shorts.

"Yeah, ha, ha, I still have to change," he commented. "How can you be up and dressed already anyway? You look perfect!"

She blushed a little at his comment, which made him suddenly feel very well aware he was only wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts.

"I'll, eh, go take a shower," he quickly decided. She sat down on his bed, taking an orange from his breakfast plate. "Mind if I stay here? It's kinda boring across the hall."

"Oh, eh, sure. Just don't eat all of my breakfast, please!" he said. She smiled at him. "I promise I won't. Now hurry up before Pauline sees you like this!"

She turned on the TV while Greg showered, but all the Dutch channels made no sense to her. Since she wasn't exactly interested in watching the BBC or CNN, she just looked around Greg's room. It was pretty much the same as her own room, only she hadn't unpacked the way he had: his clothes were everywhere around the room.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say you had had a pretty wild night with someone," she said when he came out of the bathroom. His mouth fell open. "How could… Do you… I would never…"

Grinning, she got up and handed him half of the orange. "I'm only joking, Greg, relax!"

A little grumpy he took the orange from her. "It's too early for that…"

Smiling, she gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. "I won't do it again, I promise! I'm just gonna go brush my teeth, see you in a bit!"

She left his room, feeling his surprised eyes burn on her back. She had no idea why she had just kissed him, she had just felt like doing it. Had it been her way of trying to make the first move? She had no idea, but if it was, she hoped it would make Greg take step two.


	4. Chapter 4

**Time for an update! :)  
****Thanks again for the amazing responses after the last chapter, I really love them so much! :D  
****Hopefully you guys will enjoy this chapter again as well - if you hadn't realized it yet: I'm taking it slow with this story, so in this chapter there's a little more case related action and a little less romance... Hope you still like it of course, if you do, just let me know in a review, please! :)**

_**Chapter 4**_

After she had brushed her teeth, Morgan waited in her room for Pauline to come and pick them up. The Dutch woman arrived at six twenty-nine, a happy smile on her face.

"Good morning!" she said. "Ready to get to work?"

"Yeah, totally!" Morgan smiled. She grabbed her things, checked if she had her room key card and then closed the door. Pauline was already knocking on Greg's door. When he opened it, he looked a little more awake than before and he was dressed this time.

"Ready?" Pauline asked him.

"Yes, let's go!"

The police station where Pauline worked was about a twenty-five minute drive, as she told them as they left the hotel parking lot. She kept talking while they drove: in English as she told them about the neighborhood or in Dutch as she spoke to other drivers around her. Morgan tried to understand some of the things she said, but the Dutch words really made no sense to her.

"Geef richting aan!" she heard Pauline murmur. The only thing Morgan recognized was the 'ch' sound she had heard yesterday when Pauline had said Schiphol, but she still had no idea what the Dutch woman had just said. Probably something about signaling, as they had just been cut off by a car that had suddenly turned left without signaling.

Morgan looked out of the window for a while. They were driving on a basic one lane road with fields and trees on both sides and a speed limit of sixty kilometers per hour. It changed to fifty when they passed a blue sign reading 'Breda' in white letters. Morgan realized it was the name of the city, mostly because she saw a lot more houses and no open fields anymore. From the corner of her eyes she suddenly saw Greg had fallen asleep again. She quickly nudged him, which made him sit up.

"So how much longer?" he quickly asked, pretending he had been awake the entire time.

"Oh, we're nearly there," Pauline told them. "Must be different for you guys from driving around Las Vegas! What's it like living in such a big city with so many tourists?"

"It's… something you get used to," Morgan said after thinking for a moment. "Plus, most of the time you're only in your own neighborhood anyway: around your own house, driving to and from work… When I first moved to Vegas, I was planning to see as much of the city as possible, but after a few weeks I realized I'd get to see most while working crime scenes."

"You haven't lived in Las Vegas for very long?" Pauline asked her.

"No, I moved there from LA a few years ago," Morgan told her. "Greg has been living in Vegas much longer, I think he knows everything about it, especially about its history!"

Greg looked a little shy after her words. Luckily for him, Pauline didn't really respond to it. She just said "Cool" and then continued concentrating on traffic around her.

"Well, here we are!" she finally said. "Come on inside, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team!"

Morgan and Greg followed her inside the police station, which was different from their own PD in pretty much every way. Everyone seemed to have their own small office, there were no see-through windows and almost everyone was wearing a uniform. Morgan was suddenly very happy she wasn't working here, she would hate having to wear a uniform every day!

"As we work for the Dutch forensic institute and not for one police department, we don't just have one team," Pauline told them as she took them over to a small office at the end of a long hallway. "You usually end up working with the same people anyway, so you still know who you're working with. On this case, we have a team of three people: Marco, Jennifer and Bram."

"What about you?" Greg asked her.

"Oh, I'm the assistant supervisor," Pauline told him. "We have one supervisor for our entire forensic team, about twenty people, and three assistant supervisors, which I'm one of. We're directly in charge of what happens during a case."

She walked into the small office, which suddenly seemed overcrowded with so many people in it. Pauline quickly introduced Morgan and Greg to her team members. Next, she told them about the dead woman they had found: her name was Sylvia Bergen, who had been living in the same town as Pauline her entire life. They hadn't known each other, though.

"She was found strangled by a rope – we found a piece of the rope at the scene, plus a plastic bag," Pauline said. "She also had a tattoo of the letter X on her right upper arm. It seemed to have been put there after she had died."

"Just like our three victims," Morgan nodded. She showed the Dutch investigators their case file and told them about the murders of Jim Van Dyk, Mark Jansen and Mandy Smit. She often had to repeat parts or explain them in other words as Marco and Jennifer seemed to have trouble understanding her English. Bram was able to follow what she said very well, though, and he was always the one to ask the first question, something which Pauline seemed to appreciate.

"Alright, so we have four victims, we know they've all been killed by the same person, but the only thing we know about that person is that he is male and has dark hair," Pauline then summarized the entire story.

"Well, there's only two of those in the entire country, so that should be easy enough!" Bram said, taking a sip of his coffee. Morgan wondered where he had gotten it, she would love some coffee herself to help keep her awake! Pauline never asked if she or Greg wanted coffee, though, as she was too busy either looking at Bram or smiling at him. Morgan couldn't imagine their supervisor Russell doing something like that.

"Perhaps we should take a look at the victims," Greg suggested. "Maybe they have something in common. For example, Mandy Smit was married to Jim Van Dyk's cousin. I could dig into their family history!"

Morgan smiled at his enthusiasm. She knew he was thinking about Donna, the genealogist and a good friend to both of them. She would never forget the words Donna had said after she and Greg had agreed her family crescent was 'perfect for Christmas'. The compliment that they looked cute together had made both of them a little shy, the suggestion they might be related had worried them both. Greg had of course immediately investigated the possibility and to their relief, they were absolutely not related.

"That is no use," Jennifer said with a strong Dutch accent. "We need to find evidence."

"I think Greg may have a point," Pauline disagreed with her team member.

"Me, too," Bram nodded. Pauline seemed pleased he agreed with her, even though she just gave him a little nod to show her appreciation. Before she could say anything else, Jennifer's phone went off. She spoke in Dutch, so Morgan and Greg didn't understand what was going on. The looks on the faces of the Dutch investigators told them it was serious.

"There's been another murder," Pauline told them. "Another victim of our murderer X!"

"Where?" Bram asked.

"Utrecht."

Of course Morgan and Greg had no idea where it was – they could barely understand the name of the city – but Pauline explained to them it was a city about an hour away from the police station.

"Let's get our things and hit the road!" she happily said.

Because the entire team came along, they drove to Utrecht in two cars. Greg and Morgan shared their car with Pauline and Bram, who chatted non-stop in Dutch.

"I wish we could talk without them understanding us," Greg whispered to Morgan. "Don't you feel like they're talking about us?"

To his surprise, Morgan shook her head. "Look at the proud expression on his face. He's showing off to her about something. And look at the way she's smiling and giggling, like a love-struck teenage girl. Trust me, they are definitely _not_ talking about us!"

"You sure?"

"Hey, I once was a teenage girl!" Morgan reminded him. "I know exactly what they do when they're in love!"

"I can't really see you as a love-struck, giggling teenage girl…"

"Well, I… never really fell in love as a teenage girl, maybe that's why. And what about you anyway? Were you one of those guys who tried to impress girls by talking about fast cars or how many times you work out a week?" she whispered back.

"I had other ways to impress girls," he whispered, a little teasing smile on his face. She narrowed her eyes, unable to hide her curiosity. "What ways?"

"Come over to my room tonight, I'll tell you."

It sounded innocent enough, but it made Morgan's heart suddenly beat twice as fast.

"Okay," she nodded, pretending to be calm. "I'll be there."

She leaned back into her seat and looked out the window. From the corner of her eyes she watched Greg, though. Had he really meant his words as innocent as they had sounded or was this his way of making the next move? His face didn't give anything away, not even a small blush or anything. He did turn his head away from her, she noticed. Maybe it indeed was his way of making the next move…

After another few minutes of driving Pauline parked the car next to a big building, which was a train station with a shopping mall attached to it, as she explained to them.

"Utrecht is one of the biggest train stations in the Netherlands," she told them. "I used to come here a lot a couple of years ago: there's a theater on the other side, which had a show I absolutely loved. I think I saw it a total of nine times!"

Bram started humming and softly singing a song. Morgan recognized the melody, but she didn't understand the words he was singing. Pauline laughed and pushed him against his shoulder. She said something in Dutch after which Bram grinned.

"Don't you feel like we're suddenly invisible?" Greg whispered in Morgan's ear. She smiled at him. "If we aren't, we definitely should be! Come on, let's go check out the scene!"

Because they had no jurisdiction in the Netherlands, they were only allowed to watch the others process the scene. They quickly noticed everyone had their own job to do: Marco stayed with the body, Bram took notes and photos while Jennifer collected evidence and Pauline made sure everyone did their own job.

"No surveillance cameras anywhere," Greg had already seen. "Think there's any witnesses?"

Morgan looked around.

"Probably not," she realized. "There's no streetlights around, so when the sun is gone, it's most likely pitch black out here. Our killer had plenty of time to strangle the victim and then tattoo his arm."

While they had been talking, Jennifer had found a plastic bag and a piece of rope. Pauline quickly checked them: the plastic bag had clear fingerprints on them and there was saliva on the piece of rope.

"When we're back at the lab, I'll run everything," she promised Morgan and Greg as she walked towards her car. Greg frowned all of a sudden.

"What?" Morgan asked him.

"Well, the pieces of rope we found weren't big enough to be the murder weapon," he said. "The rope he used in Vegas was from the kind they sell per yard, so he probably bought a much longer piece of rope. He obviously took the rest of it with him, but what about that piece he's leaving behind every time? Like the plastic bag – why is he leaving that behind as well every time?"

"Maybe I have an idea," Morgan said, slowly starting to think of something. "Pauline, when we're back at the lab can Greg and I compare the piece of rope to the one you found at the other crime scene here in the Netherlands?"

"Yeah, sure," Pauline nodded. "Got an idea?"

Morgan mysteriously smiled at Greg. "Maybe!"

After the entire crime scene had been processed, Pauline drove back to the police station in the southwest of the country. She took Greg and Morgan over to the lab, handing them a box of gloves before she gave them the evidence bags with the pieces of rope. Morgan put them under a microscope to take a closer look.

"Greg, can you hand me the close-up photos from the pieces of rope we found in Vegas?" she asked, her eyes glued to the microscope. Greg immediately did as she asked. Smiling, Morgan finally looked up at him. "I think all these pieces come from the same rope! Take a look at them under the scope."

She stepped aside to give Greg and Pauline the chance to look at them.

"I know it's difficult to see as it's rope, but they seem to match perfectly," Morgan said. "I think our killer bought a long piece of rope back in Vegas and every time he kills someone with it, he cuts off a little piece which he has had in his mouth. He leaves it at the crime scene on purpose, just like the plastic bag with his fingerprints on it and the X tattoo. I think he's doing that to let us know we're dealing with one and the same killer."

"One very arrogant killer," Pauline understood. "He knows he's never been in trouble before, so we don't have his fingerprints or DNA in the system. He feels perfectly safe leaving them behind at the scenes! And since we don't even have a suspect, he's probably going to get away with all these murders as well…"

She groaned in annoyance.

"What about my idea?" Greg carefully asked. "To check out the family history of all our victims? I could contact Donna and see if she has a colleague here in the Netherlands who can help us."

"Sure, that's a good idea," Pauline nodded. "You can use my office here if you like, I have a few other things to do anyway. Let me know when you find anything, okay?"

"We will," Morgan promised. She and Greg left the lab and returned to Pauline's small office. When Greg closed the door, she unintentionally let out a sigh of relief. With an apologetic look on her face, she looked up at Greg, who simply grinned.

"It's nice to work together just the two of us, right?" he smiled.

"Totally!" Morgan agreed. "Watching other people process a scene is definitely not my kinda thing!"

"Well, let's get to work then," Greg said, still smiling. "Do you still have the files on our three victims? Okay, let's get started on Jim Van Dyk then. What do we know about him?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you all so much again for your reviews on the last chapter, it really makes me feel so happy to know you're enjoying this story! :D  
****I'll just go straight to the new chapter now and let you guys read it... Hope you like it again and of course: if you do, just let me know in a review! :)**

_**Chapter 5**_

For nearly three hours straight Morgan and Greg worked on a family tree for their three victims. They weren't very successful, though, as most information they needed was either unfindable or in Dutch. Greg tried to contact Donna to see if she could help them, but as it was still the middle of the night in Vegas, she didn't answer her phone.

"Let's see what we can find out about the two Dutch victims," Morgan decided. "The first one was Sylvia Bergen, the man we found today was called Bart Jansen."

Greg grinned when she tried to pronounce the victim's name the same way Pauline had.

"Wait… Jansen… Jansen!" Morgan said, ignoring Greg's grin. "Our second victim was called Mark Jansen, think they could be related?"

"Jansen is one of the most common surnames here in the Netherlands," Pauline said, entering the office. "It's like 'Smith' in the United States, you find ten of those on each block as well, right?"

Morgan wasn't sure what to think about Pauline's answer. Was it really such a bad lead or did Pauline make it sound worse than it was on purpose?

"Did you find anything?" Greg asked the Dutch woman.

"Fingerprints and DNA match," Pauline nodded. She looked up at Bram, who appeared next to her. "Any news?"

"Bart Jansen lived alone, never got married and doesn't have any kids," he told her. "The police did speak to his neighbors, but they told them Bart never caused any trouble and that they never saw anyone else at his house. No friends, no girlfriend… nothing!"

He put his arm around Pauline's waist and pulled her a little closer, so she could rest her head on his shoulder. Morgan looked at Greg from the corner of her eyes, seeing he was looking back at her with the same confused look she had on her face.

Bram asked Pauline something in Dutch to which she replied in English: "No, thanks, I have to take Greg and Morgan back to their hotel first of all."

She took her car keys from her pocket and held them up. Looking at Greg and Morgan she said: "Ready to go?"

"Oh, eh, yeah, sure," Morgan said, feeling confused for the second time. Working double shifts was apparently not something Pauline did!

She drove them back to their hotel in silence for a change, looking very much lost into her own thoughts. Morgan remembered Bram saying something to her before they left, something she hadn't understood, but something that was now definitely on her mind. After saying goodbye to the Dutch woman at the entrance of the hotel, Morgan decided to just ask the young woman behind the check-in desk if she could translate something for her.

"What I heard, sounded like 'Ik bel je straks'," she remembered.

"Oh, that's easy, it means 'I'll call you later'," the young woman told her. Morgan smiled at her. "Thanks, that's all I needed to know!"

She left the check-in desk, giving Greg a triumphant look. He raised his eyebrows at her, to which she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Greg, he had his arm around her, he pulled her close and he said he'd call her later. If he's not interested in her, then I'm not a real CSI!"

Greg rolled his eyes back at her. "Why do you care anyway? We came here to find a murderer, not to dig into other people's love life!"

"Well, if you don't have a love life yourself, you get interested in other people's relationships," Morgan simply explained.

"Right… Well, that makes perfect sense then… Oh, no, wait, it doesn't!" Greg looked at her. "I already told you: we came here to find a murderer, not to get involved in love lives, other people's or our own!"

"I didn't know we had a love life," she teased him, not ready to let go of the subject yet. With a satisfied look she noticed the blush on his cheeks.

"And what about what you told me in Pauline's car?" she continued. "About your ways to impress a girl…"

"I…" He let out a deep sigh before he stopped her from continuing down the hallway to their rooms. "Okay, I'll tell you why I'm not interested in Pauline and Bram's love life: because it feels weird. You should know what that's like, I've seen the look on your face whenever Russell tells you that you can take your boyfriend along, meaning me…"

"That's not…" she started, but Greg continued without letting her finish: "And my ways to impress girls… I didn't have any, okay? I tried to impress them by telling them my grades or that I was captain of the chess team, but all that happened was that they laughed at me. So, happy now you know?"

"Sorry," she softly said, feeling a little hurt all of a sudden because she had obviously made him feel bad. "I didn't mean to upset you… But… for the record: you were the one to say you had other ways to impress girls with that cheeky grin added to it… Not to mention that you invited me up to your room, saying you'd tell me all about them!"

Only now she noticed the mischievous sparkle in his eyes. Her mouth fell open. "This was your way? Making girls feel sorry for you? Oh, my… You are… just… Not funny!"

She pushed him against his shoulder, a little more powerful than usual. He just grinned at her. "Hey, it worked, didn't it? I got you to feel sorry for me! If you would have let me continue, I would have faked a few tears, got you to hug me and _you'd_ be inviting me over to _your_ room… Getting someone to feel sorry for you is the perfect way to get that someone to do whatever you want…"

"Well… You're about to feel very sorry for yourself!" she said, trying to use a threatening tone in her voice. "I can't believe you did that!"

"I'm sorry," he finally said, still smiling. "Do you still wanna come up to my room?"

"That depends on what you plan on having me do…" She gave him a warning look, hoping she wouldn't blush after using words that could mean so much more… With a warm smile he held his hands up. "Nothing, I promise. I just thought we could try calling Donna again and see if she can help us with our victims. She'll probably be more successful making a family tree than we were!"

Okay, it wasn't exactly what she had had in mind, but still: she'd be alone with him in his room…

"Alright, but no more of your ways, okay?" she said with a strict look. He smiled at her again. "Promise. How about I pay for room service to make up for it?"

"Deal!"

Even though she had given him warning and strict looks she had enjoyed the whole thing. That sparkle in his eyes, his cheeky grin… She loved seeing them so much! Then again, what didn't she love about him? In her eyes he was just unable to make mistakes.

Once they were in Greg's room together, Greg first called room service to order something to eat for them. He then called Donna and told her about their case. Morgan tried to hear what she said, but since Greg was using the hotel phone, he couldn't put it on speaker phone.

"I'm just happy I can still check my email on my phone," he said after he had hung up.

"Yeah, me too," Morgan nodded. "I received this really great email earlier today: two for one on diapers this week at my local supermarket. Glad I didn't miss out on that!"

Grinning, Greg got up to open the door. After he had paid, he brought their room service food over to his bed on which Morgan had made herself comfortable.

"So, wanna talk about the case?" he asked, handing her a plate. "Or Pauline and Bram's love life?"

He gave her a little grin. She smiled back at him. "No, that's fine! What did Donna say?"

"She's going to dig into the family history of our victims and email me once she finds something," Greg told her. "So all we can do now is wait!"

"What do you wanna do while we wait?" Morgan asked him, filling up her plate with some more cherry tomatoes.

"Wanna watch some TV?" Greg suggested.

Again, not exactly what she had had in mind, but to be honest: she hadn't expected him to suggest anything else. She had already seen his hands tremble just because she was on his bed. She of course hadn't said anything about it as it would just make him more nervous than he already was. For a moment she hesitated – maybe making him more nervous would be a way to bring the conversation back to what they had talked about before and maybe eventually even to what she had in mind herself… No, she decided, she didn't want to push things just by making him nervous. So she just said "Sure" and leaned back.

While they ate, Greg used the remote to check all the channels on his hotel TV. After a while he found a movie with Dutch subtitles, but with English as spoken language. As she was watching, Morgan felt that everything that had happened the past few days was finally catching up with her. The long flight, the time difference… She put her empty plate on one of the nightstands to try and stay awake, but as she sat back down, she suddenly felt so tired she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She slowly drifted off to sleep, waking up a few hours later when Greg's phone made a buzzing sound. She was still too tired to see what was going on, though, and she fell back asleep, noticing as last thing that Greg got up to check his phone.

Another few hours later she woke up again, this time feeling well rested. She turned onto her back and realized she was still in Greg's room. In his bed even… and that he was lying next to her. His arm had slid down from her waist when she had turned onto her back, making her realize he had had his arm around her when she had been asleep. She tried to remain calm, even though her heart was beating out of control.

He looked at her, a smile on his face. "Hey."

"Hey." She turned onto her side, so she could look at him as well. "How long have you been awake?"

He shrugged his shoulders a little. "Few minutes, I guess."

"Oh." She didn't know what else to say. She looked down at the fingers of her left hand. They almost touched Greg's, making her heart beat faster again. Was she supposed to bring up the fact that she had fallen asleep in his bed? Or that he had pulled the covers over her to make sure she wouldn't get cold while she was sleeping? Because she knew for sure they hadn't been over her when she fell asleep last night. She also remembered his phone going off in the middle of the night.

"Did you get an email from Donna?" she asked him. He nodded. "Yeah, she found something. She sent me the family tree of our victims. I went downstairs to print it, but I didn't really check it yet. I… wanted to wait till you were awake…"

He looked a little shy when he said it, so she gave him a warm, loving smile. "That's really sweet of you, thanks! Let me take a look at it."

She sat up, brushing her hair out of her face. When she did so, her eyes caught a glimpse of the alarm clock on the nightstand. To her surprise, the numbers told her it was nine o'clock.

"Nine o'clock… Pauline didn't come to get us!" she said, forgetting about the tension she had just felt between them. Greg looked at her, realizing what time it was now as well. "That's weird… Think she forgot?"

"Why would she forget?" Morgan said. Before Greg could come up with a theory, there was a knock on the door.

"Maybe she just ran late," Greg said, nodding with his head towards the door. He got up to open it, while Morgan quickly made sure she looked a little presentable. She didn't feel embarrassed about being in Greg's room and his bed even – it felt surprisingly natural – but she didn't want Pauline to comment on it.

When Greg opened the door, it wasn't Pauline who had knocked, however: it was her colleague Bram.

"Bram… What are you doing here?" Greg asked him. The Dutch man entered the room, looking very upset and confused. "I didn't know where else to go… Pauline didn't show up for work today! She's not answering her cell phone or her home phone… I went by her house, but she's not there! I'm afraid something happened to her!"

"Maybe you just missed her," Morgan suggested. "Maybe she was on her way to work when you checked her house, which is also why she couldn't answer her home phone. And she couldn't answer her cell phone because she was driving."

Bram shook his head. "She always answers her cell phone when I call her, even when she is driving. She has a speaker phone in her car, hands free, whatever you want to call it. I'm telling you, something is wrong!"

"You don't know that for sure," Morgan tried again. Bram nodded. "Yes, I do know that for sure. Her front door was closed, so I went around the back. I climbed over the gate, which was locked, but her back door wasn't. When we talked on the phone last night, the last thing she said was that she was going to lock up and then go off to bed. Something happened to her after that, because she didn't lock up. I think the X murderer took her!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone, time for another chapter! Sorry I kept you waiting another day - I would have loved to add something yesterday as it of course was Elisabeth Harnois's birthday, but I had to work all day and didn't have any time to write anymore... :(  
****But here we finally go! Before you start enjoying it I'd like to say a massive thank you again for the reviews on the last chapter, big smile on my face! :D Hope you all like this one again as well and that it's not too confusing when they dig into the family tree... Please let me know what you think in a review! :)**

_**Chapter 6**_

Greg looked at Morgan, who raised her eyebrows as response. From not showing up at work to being taken by a murderer was quite a step!

"Look, why don't we go back to Pauline's house, the three of us, and see if there's anything that can help us find her?" Greg suggested. Bram nodded, looking a little calmer than before. "Okay, sure. Can we go now?"

"Can you give us five minutes to change, please?" Morgan carefully asked him.

"Here…" Greg handed him a five euro bill. "Go downstairs, have a coffee on us. We'll be right there."

Bram nodded again. "Okay. Thanks."

He left the room. Greg quickly closed the door behind him, turning around to look at Morgan. She got off the bed and walked over to him.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I think he might be right about something being off, but I doubt the murderer took her," Greg said. "Maybe she just left to get a drink or so and she forgot to take her phone and lock her backdoor. We don't know anything about her, who knows what she does at night!"

"Well, let's see if we can find out," Morgan decided. "I'll go to my own room and take a shower, I'll meet you here again in five."

"Okay!"

She left Greg's room and went to her own across the hall. After a quick, cold shower – she was afraid warm water would make her start dreaming about last night – she put on some clean clothes and ran a brush through her hair before she returned to Greg's room.

"Alright, let's go!" he said. She walked downstairs with him, where they found Bram having a cup of coffee in the restaurant of the hotel. When he saw them, he left the coffee, however, and immediately got up. "Great, you're here, let's go over to Pauline's house!"

Pauline's house wasn't far from the hotel, only a three minute car drive. It was a simple row house with a small front yard in a quiet neighborhood.

"We'll have to go around the back to get in, I don't have her key," Bram confessed. He showed them the way to Pauline's backyard, helping them climb over the wooden gate. Like he had said, the back door wasn't locked. Morgan slowly started to realize something was indeed wrong, although it was still possible Pauline forgot to lock her back door when she left but that she did lock the gate.

When they entered the house, Morgan immediately noticed a key holder on the wall next to the back door. She took the keys and tried them on the different locks around the house while Greg and Bram checked the living room. The keys she found matched to the front door, the back door, the garden shed door and the backyard gate.

Next to the front door, she found another key holder on the wall. The keys she found there matched the same doors as the keys she had found in the kitchen. She also found Pauline's car keys.

"So she didn't take any of her keys or her car," Morgan said as she walked into the living room. Bram was checking Pauline's laptop, which was on the table in the middle of the room. Next to it was her cell phone.

"She didn't take anything!" he said, close to tears. "She would never leave and then have her laptop stand her on the table where everyone can see it. The house next to hers got broken into a few times, she always puts everything of value away or she takes it upstairs with her! I'm telling you, she didn't leave voluntarily!"

"Let's check the rest of the house and see if there's any sign of a struggle," Greg decided. Because Bram was just staring at Pauline's laptop and cell phone, Morgan and Greg checked the rest of the house together. Pauline's bedroom was on the first floor, as well as the bathroom, an almost empty room and a room filled with laundry and an ironing board. The stairs led to the attic, which was being used as a storage room. Even though some rooms were a little messy, Morgan could clearly see there hadn't been a fight.

"No sign of a struggle anywhere," Greg said to her as if he was reading her mind. She nodded to show she agreed with him. "So no proof she didn't leave voluntarily… Although I agree with Bram that it's strange that she left her laptop and cell phone on the table in the middle of the living room."

"Maybe he should try and talk to Pauline's neighbors, they could have seen or heard something," Greg said. Morgan thought it was a great idea, but Bram immediately turned it down.

"On the right we have a woman who barely speaks Dutch and on the left a family Pauline is always fighting with," he said. "They're probably just happy about her being gone!"

"Then you should call the police," Morgan finally decided. "Tell them Pauline has gone missing and have them form a team to find her. In the meantime you should check with the other members of your own team, maybe they know something."

"Okay," Bram nodded. "Do you… do you think you can find your way back to the hotel yourself? I wanna stay here and talk to the police."

Morgan already opened her mouth to say she wanted to stay as well, but Greg made her look at him.

"We should check out that family tree Donna emailed me," he whispered to her. "We'll be useless here anyway as everyone will be speaking Dutch. Who knows, maybe Pauline was really taken by the killer and then solving these murders will help us find Pauline."

After a moment of thinking Morgan nodded. "Okay, let's go."

They left Pauline's house, immediately unsure of where to go. A guy walking his dog helped them find their way back to the hotel, though, and they went back to Greg's room.

"Okay, the family tree!" he said, looking around. "Hey, that's strange, I thought I left it here…"

He checked under the bed, in the drawer of his nightstand and in his suitcase, but the family tree he had printed was nowhere to be found.

"Are you sure you printed it?" Morgan said, sitting down on the bed which had already been made by housekeeping. "I mean, you didn't dream you printed it? I only remember that you got up to check your phone…"

"No, I'm sure I printed it!" Greg said, still looking for the paper. "I remember because the girl behind the desk was the same girl you talked to last night. She asked me if she needed to translate something again."

Half of his words were lost as he was checking under his bed, but Morgan understood what he had said anyway.

"Do you still have the email Donna sent you?" she asked him.

"Yeah, of course, it's right here on my phone!" he said, getting up from the floor. He handed her his phone and showed her the email. Morgan used her fingers to enlarge the document on the screen.

"Okay, our first victim, Jim Van Dyk, had a Dutch father," she saw. "He was born in Las Vegas, though, Jims father moved there after his parents split up. Our second victim, Mark Jansen, moved to Las Vegas when he was twenty-five, looks like he moved there for his job… And our third victim, Mandy Smit, was a Las Vegas local: her husband, Ronald Van Dyk, moved to Las Vegas to be with her."

"Ronald and Jim Van Dyk are cousins," Greg said, looking at the screen as well. "Jim's father and Ronald's father are brothers. They also had a sister, Sofie Van Dyk, who…"

"… married Mark Jansen's father," Morgan saw. "She was Mark Jansen's mother! That means our first three victims are all related!"

She excitedly looked up at Greg. They had finally figured out something that could help them solve their case!

Greg took his phone from her to take a closer look at the screen. "Looks like the fourth and fifth victim are part of the same family as well! Look here, Sylvia Bergen and Bart Jansen!"

"Sylvia Bergen's mother is the sister of Mark Jansen's father," Morgan saw. "So the father of victim number two has a sister, whose daughter is our fourth victim. And look, it doesn't end there! Sylvia Bergen's mother was first married to Sylvia's father, but after the divorce she had a baby with an unknown man… And that baby is…"

"Bart Jansen, also known as victim number five!" Greg called out. He looked at her, his eyes filled with enthusiasm. "All our victims are related, they're all part of the same family!"

"But look at all the dates Donna sent us!" Morgan said, pointing at the screen. "Ronald Van Dyk, the third victim's husband, died in a car crash, we already knew that. But everyone else in the family seems to be dead as well! The first victim's parents, Peter Van Dyk and Charlotte Bastiaans… The parents of victim number two are dead as well…"

"Ronald Van Dyk's father and mother," Greg nodded. "Even Sylvia's parents are dead! There's only one person still alive in this family, someone named Marco Bastiaans."

"And maybe Bart Jansen's father, but we don't know who he is," Morgan reminded him. "And who is Marco Bastiaans?"

"He's another child of Charlotte Bastiaans, the mother of Jim Van Dyk, our first victim. She and Jim's father split up and then she had a child with Michael… Vissers? Not sure if I pronounced that right… Anyway, she and Michael never got married, that's probably why Marco has her name instead of his father's… That Michael is dead as well, by the way…"

"Why does that name Marco sound so familiar?" Morgan said, looking up.

"There's a Marco on Pauline's team," Greg remembered.

"Oh, right…" Morgan looked up from the screen a second time. "You don't think… I mean, he couldn't be…"

"If he is, then why would he kill so many members of his family?" Greg said, shaking his head. "It doesn't make sense… Besides, shouldn't his fingerprints and DNA be in the system?"

"That's true," Morgan said. She took the phone back from Greg and studied the screen again. "I still think it has something to do with this family, though. Look at this: Annie van Land, the grandmother of our first two victims and victim number three's husband, died only a month ago."

She looked up at Greg. "Do you think she has something to do with all of this?"

"Give me two minutes to find out!" Greg grabbed his phone back and typed in Annie van Land's name on Google. Morgan leaned over his shoulder to read along with him, too excited about their breakthrough to realize how close to him she was.

With the help of Google translate they managed to figure out Annie van Land and her husband Arnold van Dijk, as the name was spelled back then, were two very rich people. When Arnold died, he left all of his money and possessions to Annie, making her one of the richest people in the country at the time. When she passed away a month ago, the fortune was supposed to be divided between the living family members.

"That's it!" Morgan called out. "Our murderer simply wants more money, that's why he's killing everyone! Instead of taking one sixth of the inheritance, he wants everything! We did it, Greg, we finally caught a break!"

Greg laughed at her enthusiasm.

"We still haven't found him, though," he then reminded her.

"Well, we do have one remaining family member, Marco Bastiaans, I'd say he's our prime suspect now," Morgan said to him. She leaned in a little closer, one hand on his shoulder, to point at the screen of his phone. "See what Google says about him!"

Greg did as she asked, but this time he was unsuccessful.

"Nothing," he said, looking up at her. Because she was still so close, their faces were only inches apart, just like they had been moments before they had landed at Schiphol. This time, however, Morgan didn't let anything or anyone ruin their moment. Just as Greg wanted to turn his head with a shy blush, she placed her hand under his chin and forced him to look at her. Slowly, she leaned in further and kissed him. He immediately responded, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her even closer.

Breathlessly they finally broke apart. For a few moments they just looked at each other, trying to realize what just had happened. Greg was the first to break the silence: "We should, eh, see if we can find our suspect. And Pauline."

"Right," Morgan nodded, brushing her hair behind her ear. She suddenly felt really insecure. Had it been the right thing to do – kiss him all of a sudden? He had responded to it, she had definitely felt that, but what would happen next? Did he know she had kissed him because she liked him so much? And had he kissed her back because he liked her as well? Yeah, of course he had, she was sure he liked her. Right? She confused herself thinking about it and tried to focus on the case again: "We, eh, best call Bram… Do you have his number?"

"Yeah, I think so…" He showed her the number on his cell phone screen.

"Okay, why don't you call him?" Morgan suggested, still tucking strands of hair behind her ear to try and cover up her insecurity. Suddenly Greg pulled her close and kissed her again. He surprised her, but she quickly recovered and wrapped her arms around her, losing herself in the kiss.

"Just so you know," he softly whispered when they finally broke apart. Smiling, she ran her hand through his hair, her insecurity gone. "I already knew…"

Both smiling they kissed again before they decided they really had to call Bram and tell him what they had discovered, hoping it would help him find the woman who was obviously more than just a colleague to him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone, time for another update! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, love reading what you think! :D  
We're getting close to finding out what's going on with this case, hope you guys like what I came up with! If you do... well, you know what to do! *cough* Review *cough* ;)**

_**Chapter 7**_

Morgan waited impatiently while Greg spoke to Bram on the hotel phone, trying to stay focused on the case instead of on the fact that they had finally kissed… She could only hear half of the conversation, making her more and more curious with every word she did hear. When Greg finally hung up, he stared at her without saying anything.

"Tell me!" she called out after he had been quiet for over ten seconds.

"I… I told him we might be looking for someone named Marco Bastiaans as he's the only family member still alive except for Bart Jansen's unknown father and…" Greg shook his head in disbelief. "Remember how you said the name Marco sounded familiar?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, it is: the Marco on Pauline's team _is_ Marco Bastiaans!" Greg finally told her. Morgan started shaking her head as well. "He can't be our killer, his fingerprints and DNA should be in the system! Unless…"

"… he had help," Greg finished the sentence for her. He suddenly narrowed his eyes, clearly lost in thought.

"What?" Morgan softly asked her. Greg looked up at her. "Bram is coming over to pick us up and take us to the police station. When we get there, I wanna check the DNA sample we have of our murderer. It's just a hunch, but maybe it'll help us…"

This time Morgan narrowed her eyes. "You don't think…"

Greg nodded. "I do think so."

He didn't have to say the words out loud as Morgan already understood: was it possible that the murderer, the dark haired man they were looking for, was Bart Jansen's unknown father – the only other family member still alive?

When they drove with Bram to the police station, Greg explained his idea to him and Bram immediately took them over to the lab after they had arrived. While Greg checked the DNA samples, Morgan asked Bram about the search for Pauline.

"They spoke to Pauline's neighbors, but they haven't seen anything unusual, so they still think Pauline just took off without locking her back door," Bram told her with a sigh. "But I know she didn't just take off and you know it too, you found all of her keys! I just don't understand what happened…"

Just as tears appeared in his eyes, Greg called out a happy "Yes!"

With a huge smile he looked at Morgan. "And I was right: our killer is Bart Jansen's father! He's the guy we're looking for! Somehow he met up with Marco, who made sure his fingerprints and DNA weren't in the system, and then Bart Jansen Senior went ahead and killed five people to get more money for him and Marco."

Morgan looked at Bram. "We need to talk to Marco!"

Bram shook his head. "We can't, he didn't show up for work today."

It took him a few more moments before he realized why Greg and Morgan kept staring at him.

"Damn it!" he called out. "He's the one who took Pauline! He must have been waiting outside her house till she was done talking to me on the phone! Then when she went to lock up, he rang the doorbell and got her to go outside with him! That also explains why there were no signs of a struggle, why her neighbors didn't see anything and why her back door wasn't locked. Her front door locks up automatically when you close it, it explains everything!"

He took off with his cell phone to call the police and let them know they needed to find Marco. Morgan turned around to look at Greg. "You know what I don't get? If Marco took Pauline to keep her from solving this case, then why didn't he take her after the first murder here? Or why didn't he take us for that matter?"

Greg shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know… You know what else I don't know? Where that family tree I printed is. I am one hundred percent certain I printed it and put it in my room. Where did it go?"

Morgan smiled as she remembered him crawling under the bed, but suddenly she remembered something else.

"The bed!" she said. "The bed had been made when we came back, what if housekeeping took it?"

"Why would…" Greg started, but then he already knew the answer: "Marco and Bart Jansen Senior have a spy at the hotel! That's why they didn't take us, because their spy knew we hadn't left the hotel. And when we did leave, that spy went to my room and took the family tree I printed."

"That girl behind the reception desk is their spy," Morgan immediately knew. "You remembered her from when I talked to her, she knew you printed it. When she saw what you had printed, she must have called Marco or Bart Jansen Senior and then Marco went over to Pauline's house."

As Bram walked back into the lab, she and Greg had to repeat their conversation. Bram thought it was a little far-fetched, but he took out his cell phone again to ask the police to find out who the girl at the hotel was. Because neither Greg nor Morgan could do anything but wait Greg took out his own cell phone to study Donna's email again. Morgan saw his fingers move up and down the screen, his eyes moving quickly from the left to the right. It made her smile, seeing him so focused. It also made her feel useless, something she hated. She wanted to have something to do as well! From the corner of her eyes she noticed a computer on which Bram's colleague Jennifer had worked earlier, as Morgan understood when she checked the screen. Jennifer had been checking her Facebook page, but not without a reason: she had been reading Marco's Facebook page.

"Hey…" Morgan frowned when she read the little info block. Her eyes grew larger as the information hit her. At the exact same time as Greg she said: "Did you know Marco has a sister?"

Surprised, they looked at each other.

"How do you know?" she asked him. He showed her the email from Donna. "There's a column to the left I didn't see before. Charlotte Bastiaans and Michael Vissers aren't just Marco's parents, they also had a daughter named Margot."

Morgan pointed at the screen. "That's what it says on his Facebook page as well: he has a sister named Margot Bastiaans. I'll check out her page."

As soon as she had clicked on the link, Margot's profile photo appeared on the screen.

"That's the girl from the hotel," Greg immediately recognized her. "We need to let Bram know!"

Morgan already got up to find him, but Greg stopped her, gently forcing her to look at her.

"Great work," he softly whispered before kissing her. With a smile she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back, feeling incredibly happy she was able to do this.

"Come on, let's find Bram!" she finally still said. They left the lab and found the Dutch investigator, quickly filling him in on their latest discovery. He called the police for the third time and only twenty minutes later they called him back letting him know they had found Margot and were bringing her in for questioning.

"Maybe you shouldn't be the one doing the questioning," Morgan carefully suggested, seeing how angry Bram already was at the thought Margot had something to do with Pauline's disappearance. Bram opened his mouth to disagree, but then he nodded. "You're right. Can you do it, please? You know what to ask her."

Morgan nodded without hesitation. "Sure."

"Thanks!" Bram said with a relieved sigh. "I'll go and find someone who can translate for you!"

He showed Morgan and Greg where the interrogation room was before finding a police officer who could translate for them. As soon as the interrogation had started, though, Margot became annoyed by the translator and refused to talk.

"How about we just talk in English then?" Morgan said, already starting to get annoyed herself because of Margot's attitude. "I know you understand English as you translated something for me yesterday evening."

"Fine, what do you wanna know?" Margot snapped at her. The police officer next to Morgan said something in Dutch after which Margot leaned back in her chair. "Okay, what do you wanna know?"

This time she sounded a little less annoyed.

"Where is your brother Marco?" Greg asked her. Margot shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. At home maybe?"

"We know you took something from our room," Morgan said. She didn't even notice she had said 'our room' instead of 'Greg's room'.

"We also checked your phone records: you texted your brother last night and then called him from the reception desk phone," she continued. "That all happened after Greg had printed the email. You saw what he had printed and you told your brother about it. He then took Pauline, his supervisor, from her house and neither of them have been seen since! Where are they?"

Margot shrugged her shoulders again. "I don't know. They never tell me anything."

"Who are 'they'?" Greg immediately asked. For the third time Margot just shrugged her shoulders.

"Who are 'they'?" Morgan repeated Greg's question. "We know you and your brother aren't working alone, you have help from a man whose Bart Jansen's father!"

This time, Margot gave her a surprised look. "Bart Jansen? Who's he? I've never heard of him, I only know my brother and my Dad!"

"Your Dad?" Greg repeated. "Michael Vissers?"

Margot nodded, her eyebrows frowned together. "Yeah, that's his name."

"But… I thought he was dead," Morgan said, remembering the dates from Donna's email. Margot suddenly went quiet and refused to talk. Greg pulled Morgan a little closer, so he could talk to her without Margot overhearing what he said: "What if Bart Jansen Senior and Michael Vissers are the same person? What if Michael Vissers isn't dead at all?"

Morgan turned to the officer next to her. "We need a DNA sample from Margot. And then have Bram run it against the DNA sample we have of our murderer and of victim number five, Bart Jansen."

The police officer called Bram's colleague Jennifer into the room to have her take a DNA sample from Margot. Even he understood it wasn't a good idea to let Bram into the room with Margot. He then stayed with the young woman while Greg and Morgan waited outside for the DNA results. Bram didn't keep them waiting for long: "Margot and Marco's father is our murderer. He was said to have died in a boating accident, but I think he faked it to escape his debts, he had a lot of them! And probably still has, which is why a small part of Annie van Land's inheritance wasn't good enough for him. We just don't have any evidence to prove our theory…"

Morgan looked at him. "How about we have Margot give us the evidence we need?"

"How do you wanna do that?" Bram frowned, not understanding.

"Just let me talk to her alone," Morgan simply said. "Let me try, if it doesn't work, we can always try something else!"

A little hesitant Bram finally agreed to wait outside the room with Greg. Morgan returned to the interrogation room and sat down opposite of Margot, giving her a little more sympathetic smile.

"Your Dad never died, did he?" she softly asked her. Margot stared at the table, her eyes filling up with tears. "No… We received a letter saying he was killed in a boating accident. Marco and I didn't believe it, though, because he was always so careful. Our mother was heart-broken when she heard the news. Two weeks after we received the letter she killed herself…"

"That must have been terrible for you and Marco," Morgan said, still using a softer tone of voice, knowing this was her chance to get through to Margot. "Thinking you lost your father and then losing your mother as well…"

"I didn't know what to do!" Margot started sobbing. "But Marco did… He helped me through school and then got me a job at the hotel. We were doing okay, but we always had money problems… And then our Dad suddenly came back… He just showed up at our doorstep one day, telling us he hadn't died, but that he had pretended he had to escape all his debts. But he had gotten in trouble again, so he came to find us hoping we could give him money. That's the only reason he came back, for money!"

Morgan didn't say anything, understanding how angry Margot was at her father.

"When we told him we didn't even have enough money for the two of us, he tried to get a job – setting tattoos, just as he had done before. But the bills just kept on coming and he kept spending money on stupid things…"

Margot was crying so badly now the police officer had to find a box of tissues for her. After she had wiped away most tears from her cheeks, she continued: "Then that letter came, saying Marco and I had inherited money… along with a bunch of other people. He then came up with the plan to get rid of those other people, so we could have all the money and give a third of it to him. I… I… didn't want to have anything to do with it, but they made me…"

She started sobbing again. "They thought of the whole plan and Marco did all the research at the forensic institute. He and my father made me book the flight and everything… My Dad went to Vegas and came back saying the job was almost done. Then he finished it here… I thought it was all over until I saw that family tree… "

"Then you called your brother and he decided to take Pauline," Morgan understood. Margot nodded. "Yes. I told him what I had seen and he told me not to worry, he and my Dad would take care of everything. I had nothing to do with Pauline's disappearance, I swear! Please believe me, I don't wanna go to jail!"

She broke down completely, throwing her arms around Morgan for some support. Morgan carefully pushed her back and looked at her. "Margot, do you have any idea where your brother and father could have taken Pauline?"

She handed the crying girl a new tissue.

"There's… There's this old house," Margot said in between sobs. "When Marco and I were kids, we used to go there to play until I got myself locked up in the shed attached to it. Then my Dad said we could never go there again. We still did, of course, and I know my Dad has been there several times since he came back into our lives. I think they took Pauline there."

"Can you tell us where this old house is?" Morgan asked her. Margot nodded. "Yes, of course. But… if I do, does that mean I won't have to go to jail?"

Morgan looked at the police officer watching them from the corner.

"I think we can make a deal," he slowly said. He continued in Dutch, which Morgan of course didn't understand, but she did see Margot's eyes grow larger before the girl firmly nodded and asked for pen and paper.

Ten minutes later Morgan, Greg and Bram were on their way to the old house together with a group of police officers. The cars all had their sirens on, something the quiet Dutch towns obviously weren't used to, Morgan thought as she saw all the people around them watch the cars in surprise. She then turned her head to look at Greg, who gently squeezed her hand. Thanks to Pauline they were in the Netherlands, so in a way it was thanks to her they had shown their feelings for each other. They just had to do everything they could to find her!


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you all so much again for the reviews on the last chapter, I really, really love them! :D  
Here's the next chapter - I'm going to do one more after this to finish off this story properly. Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter and you know: if you do, just leave me a review to let me know! :)**

_**Chapter 8**_

When the police cars finally stopped, Morgan at first thought it was because they were lost, but then, when she looked a little closer, she saw the old house Margot had told them about. It was difficult to see as trees kept it hidden from the road… making sure whoever was inside couldn't see the company that was about to arrive either.

The police officers quietly got out of the cars, followed by a very nervous Bram. Morgan tried to give him a reassuring smile, but he just kept his eyes on the house in the distance. When she turned around, she saw Greg had the same look in his eyes as Bram had.

"She'll be okay," she softly said to him. "I was okay…"

She knew the look in his eyes was because he was thinking about her kidnapping, almost a year ago. He didn't have to say it, she just knew it.

Greg looked at him, a determined look on his face. "You got shot before you were okay again… Let's make sure that doesn't happen to Pauline!"

She nodded for a moment before she turned around to see what the police officers were planning. Right now, they were just scanning the neighborhood and the house itself using heat scanners. Like Margot had told her, the house – actually an old farmhouse – had a shed attached to it, looking very much like an old wooden barn.

"A perfect place to keep someone hidden," Greg whispered in her ear like he was reading her mind. Morgan nodded with her head towards Bram. "For his sake let's hope they're really just keeping her hidden!"

The Dutch investigator was trying hard to remain calm and fight back his tears.

"I love her, I should have told her that," he kept on muttering. Greg took a step closer to him, placing his hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him. "She'll be okay, Bram, just keep believing she'll be okay. And when we get her out of there you'll get plenty of chances to tell her how you feel!"

Bram took a deep breath, pushing back his tears before he nodded a little. "Yeah, I hope you're right…"

Morgan pointed to the police officers who were talking together now. "What are they saying?"

"They've seen three people inside," Bram translated for her and Greg after listening for a moment. "Two in the house and… and… one in the shed. The one in the shed… is barely moving… Oh god, it's Pauline, I know it! What if she's… No, she can't be! She has to be okay, she can't be…"

He almost started crying.

"Barely," Greg repeated what the Dutch man had just said himself. "That means there are still signs of movements, so she can't be… She's alive, just hang on to that!"

Bram shook his head. "She just has to make it, she just has to…"

This time he really started crying. Morgan looked up at Greg, feeling really bad for the Dutch investigator.

"It's gonna be okay, Bram, we'll get her out of there!" she tried to reassure him. She tried some more comforting words, but Bram just kept on crying.

"Come on, Bram, pull yourself together!" Greg finally said, hoping a strict approach would work. "Crying isn't going to help getting her back! And trust me, I know how you feel! Only about a year ago Morgan was taken while being undercover… At first, I just acted on my emotions as well – I got angry and then I just rushed inside this building because I thought she could be there – but then I realized it wasn't going to help me find her. Crying won't help you get Pauline out of there, you know that! Now dry your eyes and go ask those police men what the plan is!"

Bram gave them a small nod before he wiped his tears away with his sleeve and walked over to the police officers. Morgan knew it wasn't a professional thing to do, but she still wrapped her arms around Greg and hugged him. Her kidnapping was almost a year ago, yes, but at times like this it still felt like it had all happened just yesterday. It was the most horrible thing she had ever been through… and it must have been for Greg too, she realized now. She gave him another tight hug before turning around to wait for what Bram had to say.

"Two of them are gonna try and get closer," he told them. He pointed at two armed officers, who carefully passed the trees and started moving towards the house. All of a sudden the sound of guns being fired reached their ears. The police officers immediately started shouting to each other in Dutch, but Bram didn't have to translate what they said this time: Morgan and Greg already understood they were shouting to each other the people inside were armed.

"We should find a safer place," Bram said, a worried look back in his eyes. Morgan groaned in annoyance at the suggestion. "I wish I had my gun here…"

"And then what?" Greg called out. "You would have just run up to the house to get Pauline out of there? No way am I letting you do that!"

"I just feel so useless!" Morgan explained her words. "If something happens, I can't do anything! If we were in Vegas, I would have used those trees over there as a cover already to get closer to the house!"

She pointed to the trees located on the right side of them. They formed a nice row, which indeed made it a perfect route to get closer to the house without being seen.

"And then what?" Greg wanted to know. Morgan shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I just would have been closer. I…"

From the corner of her eyes she saw a movement. Too late she realized what was happening: Bram had run to the trees and was now making his way towards the house.

"Bram, come back!" Morgan called after him.

"Bram is going up to the house!" Greg immediately warned the police officers. Two of them were now shooting back at the two men in the house, two others were forming their back-up. A fifth police officer shook his head. "Get him back!"

Greg stared at him. "How? There's two armed men inside, if I go after him, we can both get shot!"

"We'll make sure that doesn't happen," the officer reassured him. "Just get him back, we'll take care of those two men inside!"

Greg murmured something under his breath Morgan had never heard him say before. He then gave her a worried and unsure look. Morgan sighed. She knew what she had to do, but it wasn't something that people would appreciate until much later perhaps.

"Distract him," she whispered to Greg. She waited till Greg had walked up to the police officer and had started a discussion with him before she joined them. Just as Greg was trying to explain again why it wasn't safe to go after Bram, Morgan grabbed the police officer's gun and ran off. She heard the police officer shout, but she just kept on running until she had found Bram. The Dutch investigator was hiding behind a tree about fifty meters away from the shed. They both looked up when they heard footsteps, but it was just Greg.

"That police officer is ready to kill you," he warned Morgan. She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't care. Can you see what those men inside are doing?"

"I see Marco in what I think is the kitchen," Bram saw. "That other man must be his father, Michael Vissers."

"They're both looking out the window towards the place we came from," Greg saw. "I don't think they've seen us."

"Perfect. I'm going!"

Neither Morgan nor Greg could stop Bram from running up to the shed.

"Bram, no!" Morgan called out. Greg quickly pushed her back behind the tree as he heard guns being fired again. Suddenly they both heard a cry of pain. Morgan carefully looked around the tree and saw Bram had fallen to the ground. She held onto the gun she had taken from the police officer a little tighter.

"Michael is coming this way!" Greg warned her. "If Bram doesn't get out of there, he'll shoot him!"

Bram was trying to crawl towards the entrance of the shed, his hand pushed again side. Morgan held onto the gun even tighter, her eyes locked on the house. The side door of the actual house opened and Michael Vissers stepped outside. Behind him Marco fell to the ground as he was hit by a bullet from one of the four police officers. Michael didn't even look back at his son, he just grabbed his gun and aimed at Bram, who was trying to crawl up to the shed even quicker. Michael's finger slowly moved closer to the trigger…

"Ah!" With a loud cry he dropped his gun, bringing his left hand up to his right wrist. Blood was moving down his right arm quickly. The four police officers immediately ran up to him, followed by the fifth, to arrest him and kick his gun away. Greg just stared at Morgan, who had been the one to shoot Michael in his wrist. She was shaking a little as she never liked having to shoot at people, but she knew it had been the only way to keep Bram alive and rescue Pauline.

"Sometimes you're a little scary, you know that?" Greg said to her, still staring at her. She gave him an unsure grin before she nodded with her head towards Bram. "Come on, let's see how he's doing!"

They both ran up to the injured man, who had now reached the shed door. The door was locked, but Greg easily managed to kick it open. It was dark inside, only a little bit of light coming in through a small and dirty window. It was just enough for them to recognize the person lying on the floor.

"Pauline!" Bram called out. He crawled up to her, still keeping one hand pushed to his side. She gave a small sign that she recognized him, but that was all she could do as she had been tied up and was barely able to move. She had huge bruises all over her face, arms and legs and her lips and chin were covered in dried blood.

"We need an ambulance!" Greg shouted to the police officers before he ran up to Pauline with Morgan. Morgan impatiently looked back at the police officers, who had arrested Michael and were now checking up on Marco. He had been hit by a bullet as well, but it didn't seem serious.

She quickly turned her attention back to Pauline. Bram was busy untying the rope around her wrist while he rambled in Dutch. Neither Greg nor Morgan could understand what he was saying, but they had a pretty good idea of what it was.

They both looked up when one of the police officers entered the shed.

"The ambulance is coming," he told Morgan and Greg before he shook his head. "Declaring your love for someone at a place like this… Talk about romantic!"

Morgan and Greg grinned at each other for a moment, but they were happy for Pauline Bram finally told her how he felt. His gun shot didn't seem to bother him at all anymore, even though the red stain on his shirt was growing bigger and bigger.

The police officer turned to Morgan again. "I'd like my gun back now, please. And I'll have to report this to your supervisor, I hope you understand that."

Morgan got up and handed him his gun back. "I understand. And I think my supervisor will understand why I took it – using it to shoot at a man who is responsible for the death of five people and the kidnapping of a sixth person. And now, seeing as there's nothing else to do for us here, I'd like to go back to the hotel. I'll have to call the sheriff of Las Vegas and let him know we caught the murderer. I think my Dad will be thrilled to know we caught him!"

The police officer swallowed before he nodded. "I see. Eh, I'll just give you a warning this once and I'll, eh, see if I can arrange for someone to take you back to your hotel."

He walked away with an insecure look on his face. Greg raised his eyebrows at Morgan. "I've never seen you act like this before…"

"Come on, if I hadn't taken his gun, I wouldn't have been able to stop Michael from shooting Bram and we'd still be waiting over there, hoping Pauline would be alright!" she said to him.

"I know, I know," Greg quickly said, "I just said I've never seen you act like this before, I didn't mean anything with it!"

She gently squeezed his hand to reassure him she wasn't mad at him.

"It's being away from the rest of the team and Vegas that I'm acting different," she softly told him. "If we had been in Vegas, with the rest of the team around, I would have never told you how I felt. Although technically I didn't really tell you, I just kissed you… And then you kissed me back, so that's not really telling either…"

Greg opened his mouth to response, but the sound of the ambulance approaching stopped him from saying what he had wanted to say. He didn't get a chance to say it until the ambulance had taken both Bram and Pauline to the hospital and a police officer had dropped them off in front of their hotel: "I love you, Morgan."

"I love you too, Greg!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Here we go with the last chapter of this story... It's become quite a long last chapter, hope you don't mind! :)  
I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to review this story, I really love reading your thoughts about the things I write! Also a huge thank you to everyone who has followed the story or added it to their favorites, really appreciated!  
Thanks for reading and enjoy this last chapter!**

_**Chapter 9**_

They shared a long, loving kiss until they both realized people walking in and out of the hotel were staring at them.

"Maybe we should go upstairs," Morgan grinned.

"Yeah, maybe we should, yeah," Greg agreed with her, grinning as well. He gently took her hand in his, smiling warmly at her. Morgan felt her heart jumping up when he looked at her like that. She had meant what she had just said: she really loved him!

While holding hands they went upstairs to Greg's room, where Morgan said with a sigh: "I guess I better call my Dad and let him know we wrapped up this case. I kinda don't wanna go back to Vegas yet, I like being here!"

Greg sat down next to her on the bed. "Me too, but I don't think your Dad will be okay with the two of us staying here… Plus I think everyone might get suspicious if we stay here together, just the two of us, with no case to work on…"

Grinning, Morgan moved closer to him to kiss him. "Yeah, probably… Alright, I better call then!"

She took the hotel phone from the nightstand and dialed her father's cell phone number. He picked up on the first ring, responding happily when Morgan told him they had finished their case.

"Well done!" he said. "Have the Dutch supervisor contact me so I can finish all the official paperwork etcetera."

"That'll be a while as the Dutch supervisor on this case is currently in the hospital," Morgan hesitantly said, giving Greg an insecure look. He gave her a similar look in return, not sure either how her father would react to the news.

"What? What happened?" Ecklie called out.

"It's… a long story," Morgan finally decided upon. "But I'll see what I can do about that paperwork!"

"Isn't there anyone covering for her?" her father wanted to know.

Morgan looked at Greg, holding her hand on the phone for a moment so her Dad couldn't hear her. "Do you think Bram is the one covering for Pauline?"

"Maybe… I don't know, but I guess so…"

"Great…" Morgan removed her hand from the phone and said to her Dad: "If it is who we think it is: he's in the hospital as well after getting shot."

"What? What on earth is going on over there?"

"Look, we'll tell you everything once we're back, I promise!" Morgan quickly said. "We didn't get hurt, Pauline and Bram should be fine again as well… It'll all be okay!"

"Hmm… You haven't exactly convinced me yet, but I guess I'll just have to wait, won't I?" her father said. Morgan decided not to respond to his question, letting him continue: "I'll see if I can arrange your flight back to Vegas then. I'll email you the details once I've confirmed them."

"Thanks, Dad, we'll see you soon again then!" Morgan quickly hung up the phone before her Dad could ask her any more questions. She hesitantly looked up at Greg, who had gotten up from the bed. "I don't think there's any chance we'll get to go abroad again to work on a case…"

"Probably not!" Greg agreed with a grin. "What else did he say?"

Morgan repeated what her father had said about trying to get them a flight back to Vegas.

"So we can't contact Bram or Pauline yet as they're in the hospital, we can't go back home either as we don't have a flight booked," Greg summed up, counting down the options on his fingers. "So basically all we can do now… is wait."

He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans, looking a little unsure. "I guess we could already start packing…"

He looked around his messy room before he looked at Morgan again with a mischievous look in his eyes. She tried to hide a smile as she shrugged her shoulders. "I guess we could, yes… Or we could do something else…"

She got up from the bed and walked up to him, slowly running her finger down his chest. "We can always pack later…"

She kept her eyes on him, unable to hide the excited sparkle in them. Without hesitation Greg pulled her close and kissed her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him as well and pulled him even closer. Within minutes more clothes were added to the ones already spread throughout the room.

A few hours later they woke up from the sound of the hotel phone ringing. Greg quickly picked up.

"It's Bram," he told Morgan after hearing the person on the other end of the line. Morgan immediately sat up, keeping the sheet around her as it suddenly seemed really cold in the room. She impatiently listened, hoping to hear news, but Greg's "Yeah?", "Really?" and "Uh-huh" didn't really give anything away. When he finally hung up, he smiled at the impatient look on her face.

"They're both fine," he told her. "The bullet that hit Bram's side hasn't done any damage, so it's just the wound itself that has to heal. The doctors wanted to send him home tonight already, but since Pauline has to stay overnight, they allowed him to stay with her. She's fine as well – she just has some bruises and a damaged lip, but further her only injury is a sprained ankle. The doctors are sending her home tomorrow and Bram is gonna stay with her for a while. If we want to, we can visit them tomorrow at Pauline's house."

"Definitely!" Morgan nodded. She picked up her cellphone, which she had put on the nightstand earlier, and checked her email. "And we can, because our flight is the day after tomorrow, early in the morning. We can visit Pauline tomorrow, go to the police station if we have to in case we need anything for my Dad and then pack and go to the airport."

"I'll call room service to get us something to eat and ask them as well if they can arrange a taxi for us to take us to the airport," Greg said. "I doubt either Pauline or Bram can take us!"

Morgan immediately agreed with him. She watched him as he used the phone, a thought slowly entering her mind.

"Just a question," she said after he had hung up. "Are we going to tell everyone back home about us or do you wanna keep it a secret?"

"Keeping a secret from the rest of our team?" Greg said, looking at her with his eyebrows raised up high. "Yeah, right!"

Morgan grinned. "Yeah, you're right, no way that's gonna work! We could try, though, I quite like the challenge… You know, just to keep things exciting…"

She teasingly ran her finger down his chest again, grinning when Greg grabbed her hand when she went too far down. Suddenly she thought of something else. "What are we going to tell my Dad?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Greg said as he thought back to the conversation he had had with Conrad Ecklie at the airport before they left for the Netherlands. "I think he'll be okay with us dating!"

Morgan looked at him, but he didn't say anything else. After another moment of staring she decided to give up and find her clothes as she didn't feel like having room service see her like this.

The next morning, after they had had breakfast in bed, they walked to Pauline's house, remembering the way from the last time they had walked back from her house to the hotel. Bram was the one to open the door. He happily greeted them and then waved over to the living room. When he did, his shirt slightly fell open, revealing a large bandage around his waist.

"It looks worse than it is," he quickly said, pulling his shirt back down. Morgan saw he flinched for a moment when his hand touched the wound. She decided not to say anything, though, realizing he didn't want them to feel sorry for them.

She followed Greg to the living room and greeted Pauline, who was lying on the couch with her laptop on her lap.

"Hey!" she greeted them, moving her laptop to the table. "Great to see you again!"

"You too!" Morgan said. "How are you?"

"Oh, fine, nothing to worry about!" Pauline happily responded. "Just give it some time and I'll be as good as new!"

Morgan remembered herself saying a similar thing when Russell had asked her how she was after her kidnapping. She realized things were different for Pauline as, thanks to her kidnapping, Bram had confessed how he felt about her. She still quickly changed the conversation to Marco and Michael Vissers.

"They both confessed, they've both officially been arrested," Pauline told them. "They'll be charged here in the Netherlands, so I'll need all the evidence, paper work etcetera from back in Las Vegas."

"I'll give you the number and email address of my father, he's the sheriff of Las Vegas," Morgan said. "He'll want to talk to you as well so he can get all the official details he needs. I told him you were in the hospital, so it might take a little while longer."

Pauline shrugged her shoulders. "I can work from here. Trust me, no one wants to see these guys behind bars more than I do!"

She shook her head. "One of my own colleagues… And what for? Money! Is there really nothing more important than that?"

She shook her head again. "I'll never understand people…"

"What about Margot?" Greg wanted to know.

"Oh, she'll be fine," Bram said. "They don't see her as an… What's the word again?"

He looked at Pauline, who smiled at him with her split lip. "Accomplice."

"Right," Bram nodded. "They don't see her as an accomplice, so there are no charges against her. She can keep her job at the hotel and she can keep the house she was living in with her brother, although I doubt she'll want to stay there. But according to Annie van Land's lawyer she'll inherit all the money as Marco and Michael have been removed from the will."

"Ouch for them!" Morgan said. Pauline nodded. "Yep! And I'll bet you anything Margot is going to use the money to move far away from them!"

After another half hour Greg and Morgan left Pauline's house and returned to the hotel to pack. Morgan just put her packed suitcase in Greg's room as she knew she'd be spending the night there anyway.

The next morning they took a taxi back to Schiphol Airport, where they checked in and waited. Just like in Las Vegas their check in time was three hours before the flight left, so they had plenty of time to look around the Dutch airport, but when boarding finally began, they both felt tired already from strolling around. As soon as the plane was safely in the air and the sign for 'seatbelts fastened' was turned off, Morgan immediately snuggled up to Greg and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep almost straight away. This time they had to change planes in Atlanta, so they had plenty of time to catch up on some sleep.

When they were in the air for the second part of their flight back home, they both started to feel nervous. Morgan knew what her father had said to Greg before they had left now, but she still wasn't sure how he'd react once he knew about their relationship.

"We should just tell him right away," she said as she waited with Greg for their luggage to appear on the luggage belt. Greg looked at her, confused. "What happened to 'liking to keep it a secret'?"

"It's my Dad, I can't keep a secret like this for him!" Morgan said. "Oh, there's my suitcase!"

Greg quickly lifted it off the belt for her.

"Then we'll just tell him," he said. He lifted his own suitcase of the luggage belt and put it down. He then looked up at Morgan. "You ready?"

She took a deep breath before she nodded. "Yes, I'm ready!"

Greg grabbed her hand and gently squeezed it. "We'll be okay. Come on!"

Still holding hands they left the luggage pick up area and walked into the Arrivals Lounge. They saw Morgan's father almost immediately. He waved at them with a happy smile on his face. "Welcome back!"

He said nothing about them holding hands, he just gave Morgan a hug and smiled at Greg. "Nice job back there! Good to know the LVPD money wasn't wasted! And that I didn't waste my twenty bucks…"

Greg blushed shyly.

"Dad, Greg and I…" Morgan slowly started, but her father immediately interrupted her: "It's fine, M, don't worry. Now, come on, I'll take you home!"

"Actually… Could you take both of us back to my house?" Morgan hesitantly asked. "I'll take Greg back to his place tomorrow…"

She looked so insecure even Greg had to smile.

"Sure, M, whatever you want," her father reassuringly smiled. "But tomorrow I wanna see both of you in my office to hear every detail about your trip! And just the case related details, please!"

Greg and Morgan both grinned before Morgan nodded. "Deal!"

They spent the rest of the night and the day after at Morgan's house, catching up on sleep and talking for hours. An hour before their usual night shift was supposed to start Morgan drove to Greg's house so he could change and grab the things he needed. By his request she waited by the coat rack, even though she still had a good view of his messy living room.

"I'll promise I'll clean up!" he said when he came back. "I wasn't exactly expecting to have you over here…"

"Or anyone else by the looks of it," she commented as she looked at the clothes, newspaper and DVDs all over the floor.

"I don't usually have people over…" he shyly admitted. She immediately wrapped her arms around him and brought her face close to his. "Then how about I change that?"

He smiled at her. "I'd love that!"

He bent towards her to kiss her, to which she eagerly responded. She managed to steal one more kiss from him before realizing he was right – if they would stay here any longer, they'd be late for work.

They drove to CSI in Greg's car, walking inside together. As they expected, all of their colleagues were in the breakroom.

"Hey, how were things in the Netherlands?" Finn asked when she saw them. "Did you solve your case?"

Morgan nodded. "Yeah, we did!"

"Great!" Finn smiled.

"We should go see your Dad first," Greg reminded Morgan. She nodded again. "Sure, but let's wait for Russell before we go."

"Right on time, I hear!" Russell entered the breakroom and smiled at them. "Nice job! And I heard Donna helped you solve your case as well."

"Oh, we should call her and thank her!" Morgan said, turning to Greg.

"I'll call her after we talk to your Dad," Greg decided. He turned back to their colleagues, realizing they were all staring at them. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Nick said, returning his attention to his coffee. Next to him Sara put on one of her famous smiles. Finn just sat down on the couch, leaning back comfortably as she kept looking at Greg and Morgan. Finally Hodges sighed. "They wanna know if something happened between you two!"

Nick rolled his eyes, while Russell shook his head. Greg pretended to be surprised as he looked at Morgan. "Do you know what they're talking about?"

Morgan shook her head, pretending to be just as surprised. "No, I have no idea actually… Do you?"

"No, me neither…"

"Alright, confess!" Nick sighed, understanding their game. Grinning, Morgan wrapped her arms around Greg and kissed him.

"Well, that was about time!" Hodges said with a sigh. Smiling, Greg wrapped his arm around Morgan's waist and pulled her close. "We'll try not to let this get in the way of our work, we promise!"

"Don't worry, we're happy for you two," Finn reassured them.

"Thanks," Morgan smiled at her before turning back to Greg. "Ready to see my Dad and give him all the details of the shooting incident?"

"What shooting incident?" Nick curiously asked them.

"Oh, I took a gun from a police officer and then used it to shoot at the killer," Morgan simply told him. "Come on, Greg, we shouldn't keep my Dad waiting!"

And while holding his hand she left the breakroom with him, leaving their colleagues behind in total surprise.


End file.
